As usual, once a new version is officially released, work starts on the next.

So what do we have so far?

1. Speed Boot - make Winstep applications load faster after a reboot.

Windows makes itself look better by *apparently* booting into the desktop faster, but at the cost of 3rd party applications, which seem to load slower than ever after a restart.

This is discussed in a lot more detail HERE.

I've already implemented this but haven't tested it yet. [EDIT: Tested it. It works. Much, much, much better than previously expected.]


2. See the actual icons of running UWP apps in Windows 10.

UWP/Metro/Universal apps are alien to Win32. They are so different that, up until now, Winstep applications showed a 'generic' box app icon for any running UWP apps.

Well, these apps will now display the proper icon. If you can actually call THOSE things icons.


3. Pin UWP aps to docks and the NextSTART taskbar.

Now that we have proper icons for our UWP apps, we can also right click on the icon of a running UWP app and pin it to docks and the taskbar.


4. Colorize with dominant color of desktop background + Windows 10 wallpaper slideshow.

In v16.5 I got the above feature working properly with the Windows 7/8.x wallpaper slideshow.

Unfortunately, for some reason the trick I used to accomplish that did not seem necessary on my Windows 10 machines here, so to save resources I only used it when running under 7/8.x. Turns out it actually is too, so I've enabled the trick for Windows 10 as well.

Sweet!

This is going really well, and Universal/Metro apps are now basically handled like any other Win32 applications: you get a running indicator if a UWP app pinned to the dock is currently running, if it's already pinned to the left side of the dock it does not show a repeated icon on the list of running applications at the right, etc...

Nexus is now the *only* Windows dock able to handle UWP apps on Windows 10 properly.

Something else that has been on my mind... some of you might have noticed that I have been trying to address the most common 'complaints' lately. It's not very frequent, but I've had users complain about too many/too frequent updates before.

So I have been thinking about adding a 'silent update' option, i.e.; with it enabled, instead of notifying the user when a new version is available, any new update is silently downloaded in the background, and installed only the next time the application is started. Much like Chrome does it.

Upon restart of the application, a notification panel with a link to the release notes would pop up letting the user know that the application has been updated.

This would make updating a lot less intrusive, IMO.

Obviously, any new version outside the user's upgrade subscription period would NOT update automatically. In that case, the user would be notified of the update in the normal way, which also notifies him that his period of free upgrades has elapsed.

What do you guys think?

Wow! These all sound great, especially the proper handling of the "universal" apps. You're a genius, Jorge! (And you are so right about the "icons" - my 7 year old nephew could come up with better icons!!)

Any chance of a "calendar" module/docklet with dynamic icon showing the current month & day and allowing user to connect it to the calendar app of their choice? (I know I'm being greedy now!)

New modules are high on the to-do list now (as shown by the new battery module).

I doubt very much that the next module I implement will be a calendar though - that relies heavily on skinning options and I have yet to finish the Winstep Theme Builder at this point.

I believe this makes Nexus the only Windows dock capable of handling UWP/Metro apps properly under Windows 10: UWP app icons are now rendered properly instead of using a generic App icon, you can now pin UWP apps to the dock from the list of running applications at the right, shortcuts to UWP apps on the left side of the dock now show a running indicator when the app is running, and, as you can see, if you already have a shortcut to a UWP app on the dock, it will not duplicate the icon in the list of running applications at the right.

Jorge, this is amazing - the fact you were able to get Nexus Dock to properly handle the UWP apps with correct icon AND running indicators, too! Wow! Very impressive!! I actually use many of the UWP apps under Windows 10, so this will be a HUGE feature for me. I had stopped using Docks because of this prior limitation. The Windows Taskbar is functional enough, but way too utilitarian for my person taste (and not very attractive, especially with Windows 10 taskbar icons sized at 24x24 pixels - and that's at the larger size!). The Nexus Dock is not only prettier, but provides so many more features. Thanks for your hard work. Oh...and a great site to find replacement icons for UWP apps: www.icons8.com (and they are free).

Thanks.

Not only that, but icons of running UWP apps can also be customized just like those of any other Win32 application (e.g.; Preferences -> Tasks tab -> Customize Task Icons) so you don't have to look at their butt ugly face again.

'Minimize to dock' also works with UWP apps pinned to the dock now.

It wasn't easy figuring out how to implement all this, but I got there eventually. Yay!

Jorge, any chance of a maintenance release with the UWP app handing enhancements? I know technically that goes beyond what's typically considered "maintenance."

Maintenance release, no, but a public beta yes.

In fact I was aiming to wrap the beta up just before I left later today for the extended weekend, but I run into some issues on another feature I've also been working on and it's no longer possible.

Patience, grasshopper, just a little bit more.

5 - The GUI of Winstep applications now play ball with WindowBlinds themes and different Windows color schemes.

This was a long time coming. You can even say it came already too late, seeing how WB is no longer as popular as it once was.

Until now the GUI colors in the Winstep applications were hard-coded (i.e.; White for the panels, gray for the panel borders, black for text, etc...).

There were also a lot of 'invisible' little glitches where a color would sometimes be hard coded as white, while other times the Windows system color for windows would be used instead. 'Invisible' if the Windows color scheme remained the default white, but change it to something else and suddenly all those little glitches become visible.

Also updated the few remaining bitmaps in the UI which were still not playing ball with high-DPI displays.

6 - Effect bitmaps are going to be moved from the main EXE to a separate resource DLL.

This is the type of thing that, functionality wise, has no apparent or immediate advantages to the user. However, consider this:

There are 18 different effects based on bitmap animation sheets. Each of these animations means a file between 500 KB to 1 MB. So, in total there are about 14 MB of animation bitmaps stored inside the application executable.

Moving this animation files to an external DLL means the executable itself gets 14 MB smaller. What is the advantage?

Well, for once, when updating to a new version, that is 14 MB less that you need to transfer/download, since effect animations rarely change and will already be installed on your system. Since updates are usually around 30 MB, that basically cuts the bandwidth used per update (and time lost) by nearly half!

Also, NextSTART (the taskbar and menu system in Winstep Xtreme) shares some animations with Nexus/WorkShelf, which are intended to be used when opening menus. This means the NextSTART executable no longer needs to carry those repeated animation files around either, thus becoming smaller itself.

Silent Updates - mmmm, I almost never reboot my computer, or try not to anyway. I would prefer being notified of an existing update. I don't give a rats behind how many of them there are.
Would still very much appreciate the "fast boot" option though.

Fantastic progress on the UWP! thanks so much for that. It will be soooo nice to be able to NOT see the generic icons.

Side note, this is why I will always use this product. A dedicated author who actually cares for his customers and produces a top notch product.

Ok, back from my extended - and very relaxing - weekend. Finally have some color in my face.



I'm not sure if it was because I had to re-direct users of the free version of Nexus to Download.com for a while, but a lot of them thought (wrongly) that they had to uninstall the previous version first. That can be a real pain.

Anyway, silent updates would be opt-in only, so I guess some people would find them a lot less intrusive. And I would be free to update even more often, if I wanted.



Oh boy. Are you in for a treat! I really could not believe my eyes.

Also, another user send me THIS link. Proves my point about MS deliberately delaying the start of 3rd party applications.

Do NOT try that, though. Last comment says something about it also destroying the possibility to use Restore Recovery. My method does not.



New beta coming soon for you guys to play with.



Thanks!

Just got Ultimate. So glad I did. Loving all the awesome features. Can't wait for the beta!

One thing I'd love to see is a bigger digital clock. Or maybe a white color option. As it is, it is very hard for me to see.


Edit: Forgot to add, I'd love to have a silent update option. Since my daily driver is a laptop, I'm shutting down and starting up fairly often. One suggestion though. Maybe add an additional checkbox or something to allow Nexus to notify the user if x number of days has passed since an update. So people would still get their updates, but they would only have to see a notification every 2 weeks or something.